Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Not spoken like a true country lass from Virginia, but I bet she'll be carrying them from now on!:)===============================

“We can’t use pepper spray when we’re riding because that could blind the horse,” she said. “And using a gun would spook the horses and probably produce more danger than safety.”

Grizzlies are high profile this year.

A lingering winter and late berry crop kept bears in proximity to humans longer than normal, perhaps contributing to a stream of headlines about grizzlies killing people and people killing grizzlies.

Meanwhile, a young lady on a big horse charged out of the pack of grizzly stories near Glacier National Park. In a cloud of dust, the 25-year-old wrangler likely saved a boy’s life while demonstrating that skill, quick-thinking and guts sometimes are the best weapons against a head-on charging grizzly.

On July 30, Erin Bolster of Swan Mountain Outfitters was guiding eight clients on a horse ride on the Flathead National Forest between West Glacier and Hungry Horse, Mont.

“It’s the shortest ride we offer,” she said Wednesday, recalling the incident. “We’d already led two trips that morning. It’s always been a very routine hour-long loop, until that day.”

The group included a family of six plus a vacationing Illinois man, who’d booked the trip for his 8-year-old son’s first horse-riding experience.

The young boy was riding Scout, a steady obedient mount, following directly behind Bolster, who was leading the group on Tonk, a burly 10-year-old white horse of questionable lineage.

Tonk isn’t the typical trail mount. Best anyone knows, he’s the result of cross-breeding a quarter horse with a Percheron – a draft horse. Bolster is 5-foot-10, yet she relies on her athleticism to climb into the saddle aboard Tonk.

“He was one of the horses we lease from Wyoming and bring in every year,” Bolster said, noting that she’d picked him from the stable in May to be hers for the season.

“He’s a very large horse – 18 hands high. That intimidates a lot of riders. But I’ve always loved big horses. He’s kind of high-strung and spooky, the largest of our wrangling horses. I like a horse with a lot of spirit, and I was really glad to be on him that day.”

Bolster has accumulated a wealth of experience on and around horses of national and even world class. She started riding at 4 years old, became a pro trainer at 15, graduated from high school at 16 in Roanoke, Va., and ran a riding academy for several years.

Seeking a more laid-back lifestyle, she wrangled in Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic before moving to Whitefish three years ago to guide tourists during the summer around Glacier National Park and ski through winter.

“It’s the country, the mountains and the idea of seeing lot of wildlife that appealed to me, ironically enough,” she said.

Bolster quickly racked bear experience, too, although until July 30, it was always at a distance.

"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle." -- Edmund Burke===========================

I, hopefully, see the demise of an administration at the end of the tunnel.============================

In a blistering letter to Cynthia A. Schender, Acting Inspector General for the Justice Department who is investigating Operation Fast and Furious, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) assert that her actions relating to secretly-recorded audio tapes has obstructed their investigations of the botched operation.

Schender allowed copies of the recordings — made public by CBS News this week — to be sent to the U.S. Attorney for Arizona (USAAZ) and the Phoenix field office for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. USAAZ and ATF are supposed to be the targets of Schender’s investigation.

The recordings, which were apparently leaked to CBS News after they were made available to USAAZ and ATF, are startling, as noted by this column. It is clear from the letter that Grassley and Issa are angry.

With Rick Perry in the race for the presidency, you can be sure that liberals are going to bring up the Texas textbook wars. For nearly 40 years, Texas has been fighting yearly battles over textbooks for the simple reason that the choices Texas makes, the nation makes. The decision of the school board of Texas will most likely affect the textbook selection of your public schools in your state. Texas distributes 48 million textbooks every year. This is a huge market if you are a textbook publisher. While California is the nation’s largest textbook market, the state’s financial crisis has not made it a major player. New York and Illinois are also big markets. Any new textbooks are going to be tailored to fit with what the textbook adoption agencies decide in to do in Texas since Texas has money to purchase new textbooks. “The state’s $22 billion education fund is among the largest educational endowments in the country.”[1]

In 1998, under Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), curriculum guidelines were established. There is nothing wrong in establishing guidelines. But we need to be reminded that not everything can be put into a textbook. Some group of editors determines what goes in and what’s left out of a textbook. Then there are the interpretations that are written about the material that gets in. The choice of materials to include and the interpretations that go with them are inevitable.

The two biggest battles are over science and history guidelines. On the science side, some board members want to require science teachers to cover the “strengths and weaknesses” of the theory of evolution. How is such a guideline contrary to the scientific method? Why would anyone object to such a guideline? No one has ever seen evolution take place. Change within a species is not evolution. Think of dog, cattle, and horse breeding. As long as these types of breeding have gone on, they’re still dogs, cattle, and horses. No one was present when supposedly the first sign of biological life squirted its way out of the primordial soup. One of the first rules of biology is that abiogenesis, life originating from non-life, does not happen. And neither does something come from nothing. That’s why Darwin wrote On the Origin of Species and not On the Origin of Life. There is no empirical evidence that any species evolved into another species. Theorizing how it might have happened and showing an artist’s rendering of the postulation doesn’t make it scientifically valid. The theory begs to be questioned.

There are seven Christian conservatives on the Texas school board, and they are causing trouble for the educational establishment. “‘They do vote as a bloc,’ Pat Hardy, a board member who considers herself a conservative Republican but who stands apart from the Christian faction. ‘They work consciously to pull one more vote.’” And liberals have never done this? Give me a break. There is no neutrality. Liberals have had their way for so long that they don’t know how to deal with competition.

After re-reading my post on armchair survivalists, I thought I would take this opportunity to clarify my position.

Some of you may have thought I was scoffing at your level of preparations or didn't think people should research or talk about preparedness. That couldn't be farther from the truth! In reality, all of us have different resources from which to draw on as we prepare for an uncertain future. In a perfect world, we would have unlimited time and money and could build zombie proof bunkers that would see us safely through World War III. The world just isn't perfect, and nobody (at least nobody that I know) has the time or finances to accommodate such a plan.

The real world dictates that we go to war with what we have. My entreaty to all of you is to make sure you know how to use what you have. If you only have a can opener and some canned goods - make sure you know how to use your can opener. If you only have a Buck knife, don't leave it in the box - use it so you know how to when you really need it. If you are fortunate enough to have an AR-15, don't let it become a safe queen. Sight it in, put it through its paces, oil it - prepare it to stand at the ready.

We all learn from one another, but we can't rely on the "experts" that have never done it. Seek out people that have skills that you don't have and learn. Ask questions. Be prudent. When push comes to shove, only the skills you have learned will be of any use to you. All of the research you have done and information that you have garnered will be like so much rubbish unless you have put it into practice.

When Sir Knight and I were preparing for Y2K we read every magazine, book and article we could get our hands on. We drank in stories of living off the grid with nothing more than a China diesel generator and a few Aladdin lamps. We "knew" that you could run an entire household, including freezers and refrigerators, with a few gallons of diesel and a little ingenuity. We read product reviews and researched energy systems. We talked and planned and bought. We smugly waited for midnight on December 31, 1999. We were ready. And nothing happened.

I am not one to spend much time listening to Bill O'Reilly but he plays in the background a lot of nights as I have a habit of leaving Fox News on while I am busy doing other things. I was aware that he had released a new book by the name of "Killing Lincoln" but had paid little attention to it beyond that. The fascination with the greatness of Lincoln has baffled me since my teenage years in a private school in north central NH when I had an American history teacher who taught us that history is written for the most parts by people with an agenda so never take what you read for granted. Do your independent study and search out opposing views because the truth is most often not as it is represented.

As a proud native of the Live Free or Die State and one whose great grand father fought for the Union as a member of the NH volunteers I am proud of my great grandfathers service but also know he fought for an unjust cause. There is no need to go into the true history of the economics of the war or the war of terror waged against both the Southern soldiers as well as the civilian population but for Bill O'Reilly tonight to say as I passed by the TV that Lincoln was and is the gold standard of leadership in this nation made me sit down, catch my breath and pray for us all....

I later did an on line search and found that O' Reilly also says his book is modeled on a John Grisham type thriller. The he also says “In this time when we’re struggling for leadership—and whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, you know that we are struggling with leadership in America—we need to go back to a guy like Abraham Lincoln and understand what made him great,” O’Reilly says.

==========

My reply.

That's good O'Reilly, why don't you tell us? Better yet, be the only Lincoln lover in the world to accept a debate with DiLorenzo. Of course you won't, because you'll get your ass kicked.

With this weapon, and practice, I can walk freely, a woman unbound by convention or unseated fear. I can hold my head up high, aware of my surroundings, walking with that purpose that shows I am not afraid of you any longer. Too many victims, too many women afraid, nothing left but soft murmuring bones and deep sighs like wind. Brave women, yet in the end, unarmed, their fight so insubstantial against mass and anger that we can not distinguish it from the bone colored earth that is all that remains or their final moments.

One minute a young girl was jogging, music in her ears, clothing scant in the hot weather and concealing little, not form, not fear, not fearlessness. She is the age of the innocent, with that bubbling naive impatience of youth, the blending of childlike trust that seems to protect without reason, but rather, robustly inhibits the skills she needs to survive. It won't happen to me, this is a good neighborhood. I'm in good physical shape. I've heard them all from victims. Those still alive to talk.

The United States government just destroyed Indian sovereignty. In the United States District Court of Columbia (DC), Negroes were declared citizens of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.

The Negroes won, again. No human beings on earth will ever be allowed to deny the Negro anything–even the fact that he’s not Indian. And no Indian nation is sovereign now. Negroes are Indian, by federal court fiat.

In the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, the Cherokee Nation (of Oklahoma) made an agreement with the attorneys of the Negroes, the 2,800 “freedmen,” restoring their citizenship Tuesday, September 20, in the Cherokee Nation, with all their rights–including the right to vote in the up-coming election September 24.

The Negroes had been denied their citizenship for obvious reasons, like, not being Indian; but, Obama Administration, i.e., the Housing and Urban Development (HUD), threatened to withhold $33 million dollars of federal money from the Cherokee Nation.

Thus, the United States government determines who is Indian and who is not. It is no longer the American Indian nation. Indians no longer determine who is Indian. With the Negro in the White House, all Negroes are Indian. The Negro will not be denied anything he wants, for any reason.

It is a sad day for Indian people in America. Sovereignty is most definitely over, forever. Treaty rights are annulled. Indian identity is invalid, uncertain, and meaningless.

BadEagle.com declared Barry “Obama” Sotoero the enemy of Indians even before he was elected. The first thing he did was fire the only American Indian (and female) state attorney general, Diane Humetewa. The Negro is aggressive, arrogant, and will not be denied, or threatened. All must bow to him. No race is without the Negro. No nation can deny the Negro. The Negro rules.

And that means the imaginary “Palestinians” and their imaginary “state” cannot deny citizenship to Jews, or Negroes.

Let the lamentation begin. American Indian sovereignty is over. Racial independence is over. The Negro is sovereign. The Negro will be part of your race, your country, your government, whoever you are, wherever you are, and whatever you are.

WASHINGTON - In secretly recorded conversations between two individuals deeply entwined in the ATF's controversial "Fast and Furious" operation, the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry is described as "collateral damage."

The recordings were obtained exclusively by CBS News. The man who made them - Arizona gun dealer Andre Howard - ran the Lone Wolf Trading Company and was speaking with Hope MacAllister, the ATF operation's case agent.

Two of the guns Howard sold while cooperating with the ATF that were later found at Terry's murder.

Both Howard and MacAllister also shared concerns about Special Agent John Dodson who by that point had gone public with allegations about "Fast and Furious" and was assigned to the FBI. It was Dodson who first publicly disclosed allegations about "Fast and Furious" in an interview with CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson. That interview took place several weeks before the recorded conversations took place. In his interview, Dodson said thousands of guns had been allowed to "walk" to Mexico - straight into the hands of the cartels - without intervention by ATF.

In the following excerpts, they talk about the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Two weapons purchased by ATF Fast and Furious suspects were found at the murder scene. They also discuss concerns that ATF whistleblower John Dodson, who had then been moved out of the ATF office and tasked to the FBI, has information that could be damaging to the government.

Officer Manuel Ramos has been charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in connection with the beating of 37-year-old Kelly Thomas, a homeless schizophrenic man. Officer Jay Cicinelli has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and excessive use of force.

==============

Excessive? That's pretty weak considering they beat his face to a pulp. Rouge cops, this should be a warning that finally some of you are being held accountable.

" It is beyond all wonder how such men as the rebel (sic) troops can fight on as they do; that, filthy, sick, hungry, and miserable, they should prove such heroes in fight, is past explanation - one regiment stood up before the fire of two or three of our long- range batteries and of two regiments of infantry, and though the air around them was vocal with the whistle of bullets and scream of shells, there they stood, and delivered their fire in perfect order; and there they continued to stand......"

The market figured it out and it didn't take very long - in fact, it took less than an hour.

This latest distortion by The Fed has just destroyed the last bit of earnings power the banks had. It's gone. All to preserve the ponzi scheme in the Federal Government - the same Federal Government that just sent a bleat to Bernanke about tampering with the economy.

The very same legislators that will now do nothing about what was just done.

You got that? They will do nothing.

What did Bernanke's act tell us?

He burned the furniture for warmth today. He and the rest of the Fed cabal are done; this was the card that was known to do much more damage than it could ever help anyone - or anything. He burned the furniture to allow the Federal Government Ponzi to continue for one more year while utterly screwing the private lending industry of all sorts from banks on down.

There is no shortage of lendable money. There hasn't been since this entire mess began. The problem was that money was too easy, not too tight, and people ran into the wall on their ability to pay.

You cannot drink yourself sober.

The game is over folks. Europe is now the lynchpin between here and the SPX at 500, and that's a short-term stop between here and an entirely-possible outcome of where it began in 1980.

That's S&P 100, not 500, and Dow 800.

I know what the comments are going to be on this statement already: That can't happen because of divisors.

Oh really? It sure can happen as companies go bankrupt and get replaced, then the replacements collapse too.

Those "high fliers" that held up reasonably well today? My advice is to sell them while they're still way up, before they wind up way down. $100 in S&P 500 earnings next year? You're on drugs gentlemen.

To those who say it can't happen I will point out that there were lots of 50% gap-down opens in the 2000-2003 time frame. Fortunately I wasn't long any of them when they happened but I assure you that just as they've happened many times before they will again.

I will also point out that in 2007 and early 2008 the same people who made these very same claims kept you long and in the market as you watched 60% of your portfolio vanish.

We still refuse to fact the fact that we have twice as much debt in the system as a whole as we can sustain and four times as much in political promises on top of that and neither private enterprise (read: Banks) or government, on either side of the aisle, will cut the crap out.

I'll go ahead and make the prediction now: This time will be worse than 2008 and we'll measure from SPX 1370, which makes the minimum downside target under 600. And no, this time it won't recover with more "hopium" and fraud - that card has already been played which means the pension funds and annuities across this nation are going to get smoked, exactly as I warned about four years ago.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s onerous regulations are the bane of many economically important industries such as lumber, oil, energy, manufacturing, paper, and even agriculture. With the current anti-regulatory political climate, an opportunity exists to address the unaccountable EPA’s issuance of rules known as Boiler MACT. Although the EPA itself had already temporarily postponed the implementation of these rules back in May, Rep. H. Morgan Griffith (R-W.V.) introduced in June H.R. 2250, the EPA Regulatory Relief Act, that has received support from 123 cosponsors for a proposal that would make null and void the Boiler MACT rules, as they currently are detailed. A companion bill, S. 1392, was introduced in the Senate on July 20 and already has 29 cosponsors.

In laymen’s terms, the Boiler MACT (maximum achievable control technology) rules would set emission standards -- mercury, dioxin, hydrogen chloride, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter -- emanating from all incinerators and boilers used mostly in large institutions like colleges, hospitals, churches, corporate farms, municipal buildings, manufacturing plants and waste management systems. The EPA claims the authority to regulate this falls under the Clean Air Act.

Critics point out that the formulas used by the EPA are faulty because they are based on “best performing” emission levels for each pollutant, meaning a plant could pass on one pollutant and fail completely on another. Another area of concern is the way the EPA reached its “health-based standard,” as it treated all emissions at any level of exposure as causing health concerns. Then there’s the “energy assessment” that the EPA insists existing facilities must undergo in order to reveal areas of conservation, citing once again the supposed authority under the Clean Air Act. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) has said that in the case of Boiler MACT, the EPA has moved forward with standards that are “completely divorced from technological realities.”

The typical government-styled complexity of the 276-page regulations for various types of boilers run by an assortment of fuels was pegged by the EPA as costing in direct capital, $9.5 billion. However, the Council of Industrial Boiler Owners differed with a much higher figure of $20 billion. Either way, the costs will be passed on to consumers in the form of much higher prices. At a time when the economy is more than struggling, and job security very precarious -- the Commerce Department predicted a loss of 40,000 jobs due to Boiler MACT -- so the impact of such rules would be economically destructive.

Congress definitely needs to be proactive in the case of the EPA’s overly-stringent regulation of boilers and incinerators. Unfortunately H.R. 2250 and S. 1392 seem to be fine in theory, but are lacking in any lasting bite because as it now stands they would give the EPA and lawmakers more time to review and resubmit regulations for the boilers and incinerators instead of rejecting this entire EPA regulatory scheme that is so damaging to the economy and jobs.

Tell your Congressman (click here for pre-written, editable message) that while it’s a good idea to slow down the EPA under H.R. 2250 and S. 1392, it would be even better to eliminate all the heavy-handed mandates of the EPA by reversing the EPA’s usurpations of the Clean Air Act that Congress never intended. As Sen. Inhofe so expertly understands, “Congress didn’t give EPA the authority to set mandates that can’t be achieved or pursue a regulatory agenda that hurts the very people it’s supposedly trying to protect.” Adding, “The Clean Air Act needs to be updated to undo years of bureaucratic overreach and messy court rulings. It needs to be updated ... to stop politicians from using it to pursue a reckless political agenda that hurts working families.”

Genocide Watch has explained its reason for raising the genocide risk level to Stage six out of eight potential risk levels. Stage six "Preparation for Genocide" being just one stage below "Extermination".

For the last ten years, since Genocide Watch raised the South African risk level to level 5, the organisation has been particularly concerned by the level of violence and hate crimes perpetrated against the white population in particular the Afrikaner farming community. Since 1994 between 30,000 and 40,000 whites have been murdered in South Africa, over 3,100 of these are farmers, making being a white farmer in South Africa statistically the most dangerous occupation on Earth.

However, Genocide Watch have now raised the level because of clear evidence that the violence against the white community is being deliberately incited. In this respect, they refer to the actions of Julius Malema, president of the African National Congress Youth League, who was recently convicted of hate speech folloing his repeated singing of the ANC song "Kill the Boer".

Click here to read Genocide Watch's explanation for the change to the South African status.

Don't expect to see any mention of this in the western press any time soon.

New York NY police were caught on video making some questionable arrests during day 4 of the #OccupyWallStreet protests. Apparently the arrests came without warning after police told protesters to get rid of the tarps they were using to get shelter from the rain. One of the people arrested allegedly lost some teeth when he was brought down to the ground and another can be seen complaining about the zip ties being too tight as his hand was changing color. Whether you agree with the protest or not, the police appear to be making a stretch in some of these arrests. [3] youtu.be/jYaA-34c-vI

Meanwhile, New York NY police were apparently caught planting undercover officers at a protest when one of those officers was detained by police for being armed but refused to blow his cover and didn’t show the arresting officers his badge. The case came to light when the officer was issued a summons for the incident but that case was dismissed. [3] nydn.us/rnJq2x

Belleville IL cop is being investigated on allegations he choked & threw a man to ground which caused him to go into a seizure. The officer was responding to the couple’s harassment complaint and apparently lost his temper when the man wanted the name of his supervisor when the officer refused to take the report. [1] bit.ly/r8LH4s

Milwaukee WI cop was indicted on federal charges for the alleged on-duty sexual abuse of a woman he detained. This was after the local DA refused to charge the officer over the incident last year. [0] bit.ly/n6boAr

Tulsa OK & US ATF are being sued by a man claiming cops who were involved in a corruption scandal had falsely jailed him after stealing cash from his home during a raid. This is the seventh such suit so far. [3] bit.ly/nmE46F

Gardner MA cop was arrested on statutory rape, indecent assault on child under 14 & assault to rape a child charges on allegations that he repeatedly raped a young relative. [0] bit.ly/oXkLcY

Mooresville IN cop to pay $155 restitution to a woman she falsely arrested then lied on report about it to justify the arrest. (subscription site on link) [0] bit.ly/oKXRKR

7 Houston TX cops were disciplined for conduct related to the initial cover-up of cop’s drunk driving crash into a school bus. The discipline ranged from reprimands to 1 day suspensions. [1] bit.ly/oZ7ctw

Buena NJ police are being sued by officer claiming that racial discrimination & profiling against Hispanics is rampant in that department [3] bit.ly/nBCPiV

Seattle WA police records discovered as part of a lawsuit apparently show tens of thousands of police dashcam videos have vanished [5] http://bit.ly/ntPgzc

Peel ON undercover cop with the street crimes unit was arrested on drug trafficking charges but apparently there was an effort to keep news of that arrest quiet [4] bit.ly/mQ80Ig

Flagler Co FL deputy gets 60 days in plea deal for stealing almost $5,000 in cash from evidence and replacing it with shredded napkins [0] bit.ly/p7UJZ6

Ormond Beach FL cop was fired for assault & accused of stalking the woman he allegedly assaulted along with her boyfriend. [1] bit.ly/nd8oNB

Carmel IN cop arrested on public intoxication charge after police called about man knocking on someone’s rear door [0] bit.ly/nHF29W

While not necessarily misconduct, a lawsuit by the Philadelphia PA police union could make that state’s police unions the most powerful political force in that state by removing restraints on how that union and it’s members can contribute to political campaigns and PACs. This matters in the realm of misconduct because police unions are the driving force behind efforts in all states to make misconduct less transparent and to weaken the laws and policies that help hold police officers accountable for misconduct. [0] bit.ly/qVz9Wt

New legislation sponsored by Rep. Sam Johnson (R.-Tex.) would block illegal immigrants from cashing in on the refundable child tax credit and save the federal government tens of billions of dollars.

“Last year illegal immigrants bilked $4.2 billion from U.S. taxpayers due to a loophole with the refundable child tax credit,” Johnson said. “According to a new report, this rampant abuse has cost American taxpayers billions. That’s just wrong.

“It’s time to close this loophole,” Johnson continued. “With the dire need to cut government spending, I hope this simple fix gets a serious look as a way to stamp out waste, fraud and abuse.”

The Refundable Child Tax Credit Eligibility Verification Reform Act (HR 1956), would amend the Internal Revenue Service​ (IRS) code to require that taxpayers provide their Social Security number on their tax return in order to claim the refund.

The Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation studied Johnson’s legislation and determined that it would save at least $10 billion if the temporary tax benefit expires in 2012, and $24 billion by 2021.

According to the Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration,, those working illegally in the U.S. are still required to pay taxes, and many do so using taxpayer identification numbers. These taxpayer numbers “are issued regardless of immigration status, because both resident and nonresident aliens may have a U.S. filing or reporting requirement under the Internal Revenue Code,” the IRS says.

The refunds claimed by illegal immigrants have grown over the years at an alarming rate: $924 million in 2005 to $4.2 billion in 2010.

The mere existence of this tax credit offers “an additional incentive for aliens to enter, reside and work in the United States without authorization, which contradicts federal law and policy to remove such incentives. Clarification is needed on this issue," the inspector general said.

School spending has doubled over the past 30 years. Yet what do we get? More buildings and more assistant principals -- but student learning? No improvement. If you graph the numbers, the spending line slopes steeply, while the lines for reading, math and science scores are as flat as a dead man's EKG.

Why no improvement? Because K-12 education is a government monopoly, and monopolies don't improve.

And yet I'm happy to announce some good news: Cool things are starting to happen in classrooms.

I was surprised to meet kids who said they like school. What? I found school boring. How can it be that these fourth-graders tell me that they look forward to going to school and that math is "rockin' awesome"?

Those kids attend one of those new charter schools. Charters let them escape the bureaucracy of regular schools, including, often, teachers union rules. These schools compete for kids because parents can always choose another school. That makes them better.

Not every charter school is good, but the beauty of competition is that bad ones go out of business, while good ones expand. Then good schools teach more kids. Choice and competition produce quality. Anyone surprised?

Government schools rarely improve because no matter how bad they are, they still have captive customers.

The Harlem charter schools admit kids that bureaucrats label "at risk of failure." But these kids learn. And they do it at lower cost.

I visited another charter chain, American Indian Public Charter Schools in Oakland, Calif., that gets similar top results, also at lower cost.

"Kids in American Indian Public Charter Schools score so far above the average for the state for public school children that there isn't even a word for it," says Andrew Coulson, director of the Cato Institute's Center for Educational Freedom.

Those schools use methods different from the charters in Harlem. For example, they pay some kids to tutor other kids.

Both charters do something that regular public schools rarely do: fire teachers. One charter principal calls it "freeing up a person's future."

You cannot maintain quality unless you can fire people, said Deborah Kenny, founder of Harlem Village Academies.

In December 1860, Senator James S. Green of Missouri proposed that the Committee of the Judiciary be instructed to inquire into the propriety of a law to establish an armed police force between North and South, in order to maintain peace between those sections. Below is Senator Jefferson Davis’ reply.

Bernhard Thuersam, ChairmanNorth Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commissionwww.ncwbts150.com"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"=======

“Do we wish to erect a central Colossus, wielding at discretion the military arm, and exercising military force over the people and the States? This is not the Union to which we were invited; and so carefully was this guarded, when our father provided for using force to put down insurrection, they required that the fact of the insurrection should be communicated by the authorities of the State before the President could interpose.

When it was proposed to give Congress power to execute the laws against a delinquent State, it was refused on the ground that that would be making war on the States; and, though I know the good purpose of my honorable friend from Missouri is only to give protection to constitutional rights, I fear his proposition is to rear a monster, which will break the feeble chain provided, and destroy rights it was intended to guard.

That military Government which he is about to institute, by passing into hostile hands, becomes a weapon for his destruction, not for his protection. All dangers which may be called upon to confront as independent communities are light, in my estimation, compared with that which would hang over us if this Federal Government had such physical force; if its character was changed from a representative agent of States to a central Government, with a military used at discretion against the States.

To-day it may be the idea that it will be used against some State which nullifies the Constitution and the laws; some State which passes laws to obstruct or repeal the laws of the United States….But how long might it be before that same military force would be turned against the minority section which had sought its protection; and that minority thus become mere subjugated provinces under the great military government that it had thus contributed to establish?

The minority, incapable of aggression, is, of necessity, always on the defensive, and often the victim of the desertion of its followers and the faithlessness of its allies. It therefore must maintain, not destroy, barriers.

[To confer on this Federal Government a power to coerce a State, a power it does not possess], …then, in the language of Mr. Madison, he is providing, not for a union of States, but for the destruction of States; he is providing, under the name of the union, to carry on a war against States; and I care not whether it be against Massachusetts or Missouri, it is equally objectionable to me; and I will resist it alike in the one case and in the other, as subversive of the great principle on which our Government rests; as a heresy to be confronted at its first presentation, and put down there, lest it grow into proportions which will render us powerless before it.

The theory of our Constitution, Mr. President, is one of peace, of equality of sovereign States. It was made by States and made for States; and for greater assurance they passed an amendment, doing that which was necessarily implied by the nature of the instrument, as it was a mere instrument of grants. But, in the abundance of caution, they declared that everything which had not been delegated was reserved to the States, or to the people – that is, to the State governments as instituted by the people of each State, or to the people in their sovereign capacity.

Upon you of the majority section it depends to restore peace and perpetuate the Union of equal States; upon us of the minority section rests the duty to maintain our equality and community rights; and the means in one case or the other must be such as each can control.”

The lawsuit, first filed on Sept. 8, had asserted that Saudi Arabia as well as several Saudi charity and financial organizations were instrumental in helping al Qaida carry out the 9/11 terror attacks.

Attorney Stephen Cozen of law firm Cozen O’Connor, who represents Lloyd’s, told Insurance Journal that he cannot comment on why Lloyd’s decided to drop the case 13 days after filing the complaint. He said, however, the suit could be refiled and also that there could be other similar lawsuits filed by other insurers in the future.

Cozen said he cannot talk about the lawsuit other than to say “that we were instructed to voluntarily dismiss without prejudice. That of course means that the suit is free to be refiled and certainly similar suits may be filed by others,” he said.

This thing is a Work in Progress. Expect the files and instructions for this thing to change.

Description

Print at YOUR OWN RISK, Neither the creator of this object nor thingiverse.com is responsible for anything that happens because you printed this object!

This is a near fully printable 5.56mm X 45mm or .233 REM AR-15 magazine. It is current only a 5 round magazine. I left my printed spring design out on purpose for saftey reasons. However, with a little printing experimention and some range time it can be made easily.

What is included is the magazine body, anti-tilt follower, and floorplate.

I have used this magazine, no jams or feed problems..... YET. It works, but be reminded it is only a printed ABS magazine. If you end up using a printed ABS mag spring be prepared for stress relaxation of the polymer over time, especailly if it is kept loaded over a long period of time.

Dixieland Salvation Fund

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Southern Lady

Core Creek Militia

==============================My sixth great grandfather, his wife, and five of his six children were killed in battle with the Tuscarora Indians at Core Creek, NC.

The Seven Blackbirds

==============================My third great grandfather was an Ensign in the Revolutionary War, and saved his unit's flag after being wounded at the Battle of Brandywine. He was also at Kingston (Kinston), Wilmington, Charleston, Two Sisters and Augusta. He was at the defeat at Brier Creek and also Bee Creek.

Requiem Aeternam -
Eternal Rest Grant unto Them
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My second great grandfather was killed in action on May 3, 1863 at the Battle of Chancellorsville.
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My great grandfather and great uncle knew all the men in the "Civil War Requiem" video as they were part of the 53rd NC which was the sole unit defending Fort Mahone. (Fort Mahone was named "Fort Damnation" by the Yankees) *Handpicked men of the 53rd (My great grandfather was one of these) made the final, night assault at Petersburg in an attempt to break Grant's line. This was against Fort Stedman which was a few miles to the slight northeast. They initially succeeded, but reinforcements drove them back. This video is made from photographs which were taken the day after the 53rd evacuated the lines the night before to begin the retreat to Appomattox. I have many more pictures taken by the same photographer, one of these shows a 14 year old boy and the other is the famous picture of the blond, handsome soldier with his musket.
===========================
*General Gordon promised the men a gold medal and 30 days leave if they accomplished their task and many years after the War my great grandfather wrote General Gordon, who was then governor of Georgia about this incident. They exchanged several letters which I have framed. See first link below.
===========================
*The Attack On Fort Stedman
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"His Colored Friends"
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Lee's Surrender
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My Black NC Kinfolks
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Punished For Being Caught!

Great Grandfather Koonce

He was a drummer boy in the WBTS, survived the War only to die a few years later. He was caught in an ice storm on his way home, but instead of seeking shelter, continued on his horse until the end. His clothes had to be cut off and he died a few days later.

Thank you

I would just like you to know how so very glad I am that I found your blog. I have learned more history from you and the many links that you post than I have from reading all my history books. I can never thank you enough for the education you are freely giving me. It is priceless. And eye opening.

Many times I will not comment, but that does not mean I am not reading and learning.

You sir, are an educator. Thank you.

PhyllisWantage, NJ

Good morning Mr. Townsend,

Just to let you know I have finally finished that massive tome on General Lee. I never knew 1/10th of what a great man he was. No wonder the South is so proud of him! So sad that we have few men of his caliber today. We need them desperately. I have learned more history through you and your blog than I thought I could ever learn. I am very grateful to you. Thank you so much for taking time to answer my e-mail. And thank you for your blog and for opening my eyes.

PhyllisWantage, NJ

".......So good to hear from you! And also so pleased you are converting more of us Yankees! You have no idea how many people you have taught. And how many are so grateful to you for showing us the truth."

Your faithful friend,

Phylis

==============================

I have also learned from Brock Townsend and two nurses lately, that appreciation expressed by someone for whom you have great respect overwhelms the lack of appreciation by some from whom you expect it. I believe that we cannot really know which small bit of help makes the life-saving difference. ﻿

I have learned more history from you than all the years I was supposed to be in school (and not out hunting or fishing).

==============================

I really must say, I like thousands of others have said, your blog is the best out there and with all of your history and experience, you should run for *president. I look forward to reading your blog every day and every day I learn from you. Thank you for the time you put into this effort .

refzip.com

http://refzip.com/

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